Cameron looked up outside and thrummed his fingers on the table, sighing. "Alright, the shrimp. Literally the first thing you said. Got it. And…" He sighed…. "How do you want them cooked? With seasonings, lemon, etc?" He trailed off slowly, regretting even asking that question in the first place.
Ava lights up when he hands her more ammo. It as though he enjoys suffering. She proceeds to launch into an insanely long speech about the health benefits and risks of each option for the shrimp. It’s not long before she gets bored of listening to herself talk. Ways to cook shrimp really isn’t that interesting of a topic. “Sautéed shrimp,” She decides with a grin and then she tells when what seasonings to use.
Cameron resisted a loud groan to the Gods above and flung his head back to stare at the ceiling as he dully listened to her talk.
"Alright, so lemon and basil. By this time I could have it out to you…" He grumbled as he turned back on her and trotted into the kitchen, rewashing his hands and getting started on her appetizer. This was going to be a long, long, day.
Ava watches with great delight as her constant talking seems to get to him. She has no idea why she likes bothering him this much but she’s not going to question it. This is the most fun that she’s had in what feels like forever. While he works on cooking her shrimp, she works on how to bother him with the entree portion of her meal.
Cameron finished far too quickly with her shrimp and delicately stuck toothpicks in them as his staff trickled in, taking a few customers to their seats and their orders. Cameron breathed a sigh of relief. He'd serve this entree and would be back in the kitchen all day. Unless…. she asked for him to serve her, but honestly, why would you want the head chef to do that?
Ava is more than a little disappointed when more people start to come inside. Does this mean that she wouldn’t get to have anymore fun? An idea flashes into her head. If she specifically asks for him to serve her, he can’t say no. Or, at least that is how she sees the situation.
Cameron rubbed off some spare oil from the edges of the plate and walked out of the kitchen, wiping his hand on his apron as he walked across the restaurant and set the plate down.
"Someone else'll be able to serve you, so heads up."
Ava leans towards him a little when he approaches the table to drop off her shrimp. He soon confirms that someone else will be taking over for him. She just can’t allow him to get off the hook so easily. “What if I want you to continue to serve me?” She asks, once more playing the innocent cars.
"Well…" He sighed, shaking his head and looking up again. "I can't say no. But the service will be delayed… soo I wouldn't because I have other people to serve and…" He trailed off delicately, looking back down at her and slumping in posture.
“You can’t say no?” She questions, glee in her voice at this wonderful piece of information. “In that case, I’d like you to continue to serve me.” While, yes, she will feel slightly bad for the other people having to wait long for their meals, this will definitely be worth it.
"Alllright, well you know your stuff will come in late. I already served you your appetizer so you can eat that. I'll check on you if I don't forget," He sighed, running a hand through his brown hair and walking back into the kitchens.
“Well, I consider that to be a success, don’t you?” Ava grins down to Kreja. The dog wags his tail at her but doesn’t lift her head. Since this could be awhile, she reaches into her bag and pulls out a newspaper that she swiped from some idiot earlier this morning. As she reads, she munches absentmindedly on her shrimp.
Cameron checked on his orders and started cooking on the flat stove he just had installed, glad he didn't have to use pans anymore. He hummed softly as he cooked egg, pancake and bacon all at once as people trickled in for either breakfast or brunch. Soon Cameron found himself making all kinds of things, and dishing them out quickly after having a couple of his sous chefs check on them.
Ava reads contently for a few minutes until she spots something surprising. It’s an article about her. Reading it quickly, she discovers that it’s almost the one year anniversary of her death and her family is doing one of those latern releasing sessions in the park. All of the blood drains from her face when she discovers the big picture of herself attached to the article. Shoving the paper into her bag, she throws from money onto the table before hurrying out of the rest, Kreja right behind her. She needs to lay low for a little while.
Cameron finally decided he had enough time to check on his customer and walked out to find her table abandoned. He grunted and grabbed up her money and dishes, shrugging it off before turning back to the kitchen.
"Oi, boss!" Greeted one of his chefs, who was taking a break and reading the newspaper. "Remember that one case of the girl who died? And her body was never found?"
"Er… yeah? What about it?" He asked as he plopped the dishes into the sink.
"Apparently its her one-year anniversay. Of her death, of course. They'll be releasing lanterns. Come look!"
Ava races through the streets of the city, not stopping until she’s safely inside of the tower. She leans up against the wall and slides down to the floor, breathing heavily. “Fuck,” She murmurs, panic overwhelming her. Since her family is so well known, she really shouldn’t be surprised by all of this but she still is. After being out of their lives for a year, she thought that she would be safe. Burying her face in her hands, she forces herself to take a few deep breaths. She can get through this, she has to. Kreja lays down beside her, sending her stress.
Cameron walked over and peered over his chef's shoulders, raising his eyebrows at the picture of the girl. Ava, huh? Suspicious. You're supposed to be dead.
"Weird. Anyway, get back to work, yeah?" He patted the chef's back and walked back over to his stove, though his mind was set off into gear. Strange… so strange…
With trembling hands, Ava reaches back into the bag and pulls out the newspaper. The picture of her own smiling face greets her. Forcing herself to calm down, she reads the article. The article itself is nice, talking highly of her and making sure to highlight the achievements of Octavia Penelope Lacerta. Everything has been greatly exaggerated but she supposes that she can’t complain. She breaks down when she gets to the section that her brother wrote. A sob escapes from her mouth as she reads. She only gets halfway through it before she has to stop. She can’t torture herself like this. Forgetting about them is the only way to survive.
Octavia Penelope Lacerta… Such a dorky name. But she signed Ava on the receipt for her last meal. Huh… He shrugged her out of his mind and continued cooking, dishing out meaks with soft hums, wiggling on his feet.
Ava wipes away her tears and pulls herself together. Crying like a baby isn’t going to get her anywhere. She stands up and crosses the room to the table. Right now she just needs to focus on her next target. She can’t afford to be distracted or she’ll miss her chance to take this scumbag out.
Cameron shook the thoughts away for the second time, sighing. He needed to focus. He went still and tossed some shrimp with butter and spices, serving them. As he went to scrape his stove, his thoughts went back to her.
How is she alive? Is she faking it? Over a family like that?
After going over the file, Ava grabs her black and dark red leather outfit and changes into it. "Are you ready to go?" She asks Kreja, wanting the dog with her for this. It's a special operation. She needs to get going soon. The target lives on the other side of the city and she needs to be there before he leaves to go to the bar.
Cameron trashed the scrapings and went back to cooking on the clean stove. He mulled oer his shrimp, moving his deft fingers skillfully. He swayed back and forth, heard a "Boss!" from a sous chef, and stopped. When he swayed, he started to get distracted.
Ava gathers up a few weapons and carefully tucks them all away. "Let's go," She tells Kreja before opening the trap door and starting to climb down the stairs. Since it's still light outside, she's going to have to be a lot more careful than usual. The chance of getting caught is a lot higher without the cover of darkness.
(Should we do a skip and have them meet up?)